Slain wife was 'slipping away from husband's control'

A coroner says a man who fatally shot his wife and her beloved cat did so as "the last form of control" he had over her before turning the gun on himself.

Rodney Tuddenham, 55, may not have initially planned to kill himself but possibly did so out of guilt after shooting Marina Louise Tuddenham, 46, Magistrate Mary Jerram said.

Mr and Ms Tuddenham died of gunshot wounds to the head at their Hornsby home in Sydney's north between the late hours of July 31 and the early hours of August 1, 2011.

Handing down her findings on Wednesday in Glebe Coroners Court, Ms Jerram found Ms Tuddenham was killed between 10.20pm on July 31, 2011, and the early hours of August 1, "by a person now deceased", whom she could not name for legal reasons.

Mr Tuddenham died some time after 12.50am on August 1, as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Before handing down her findings, Ms Jerram told the court it was probable that Mr Tuddenham had not intended to turn the gun on himself initially but did so because he felt "overcome with guilt or some other emotion" after having shot his wife.

"It was the last form of control he had over Marina," she told the court.

Ms Jerram said Mr Tuddenham also killed "one of the most precious things" left to his wife, her beloved cat, which was found dead lying next to her on the bed.

"That was a cruel, cruel thing and we can only hope that only happened after Marina had died," she said.

"That again, seems to me to be an act of control."

Ms Jerram told the court the couple did not have a very happy marriage in the months before their deaths, and Ms Tuddenham had been frustrated by Mr Tuddenham delaying divorce proceedings that she initiated.

"After she made it clear that she wanted to have a divorce ... something must have snapped for him in the worst possible way.

"That he did execute precisely what he was going to do, kill her and then kill himself ... I do not think there is any doubt about that."

She said while Mr Tuddenham's motives will never become clear, he "seems to have been an extremely controlling person, for whom Marina was slipping away from his control".

Ms Jerram did not make any recommendations, because she said there could have been no way anyone could have foreseen the "unpredictable actions by somebody like Rodney Tuddenham".